Donald Trump’s nominee for a judgeship in Texas has said that transgender children are evidence of “Satan’s plan” and that allowing gay people to get married would lead to beastiality.Those comments disqualify Jeff Mateer, the first assistant attorney general in Texas, from public service, according to a joint letter to Senate members from 36 national, state, and local civil rights groups sent on Tuesday. The organizations, which include Lambda Legal, the Human Rights Campaign, and the Transgender Law Center, now demand that the Senate vote against his nomination.“Mr. Mateer has spent his professional life denigrating and vilifying LGBT people and their families,” the letter reads. “Such vitriol directed at children reveals more than just a lack of judgment or empathy; rather, it reveals a level of cruelty and ideological fervor that are incompatible with judicial service.”The Texas attorney general office did not immediately respond to VICE News’ request for comment.Trump nominated Mateer for the district judge seat in Eastern District of Texas in September. In the announcement, the White House cited both his experience in government and at the First Liberty Institute, which defended the free speech rights or an editor who was fired for writing a blog post about the “Gaystapo” while Mateer worked there.Soon after his nomination, Mateer’s anti-gay stance drew national attention when CNN first reported on speeches he gave — one called “The Church and Homosexuality,” at Denton Baptist Church in Corinth, Texas.In the speech, Mateer:
Advertisement
- suggested that a trans girl’s suing her school district and winning the right to use the bathroom of her choosing “really shows you how Satan’s plan is working and the destruction that’s going on.”
- speculated that the legalization of gay marriage would lead to the “destruction of marriage” and “people marrying their pets.”